------------------------------------------------------------------------ NT Tips [Home] [Jobs] [Jobs Wanted] [Zines] [Downloads] [Minutes] [Lloyd Toope] [NT Tips] [Humor] [Products] If you have any content, fact or rumor, please submit it! Content need not be NT related, just computer related. Got an interesting NT tip? Send it to the Webmaster! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TOGGLE KEYS Even if you don't need most of the features included in Windows NT 4.0's Accessibility Options, you may find the Toggle Keys feature handy. When activated, Toggle Keys beeps when you press any of the toggle keys (Caps Lock, Num Lock, Scroll Lock). You'll never again type in all caps without knowing it. To set Toggle Keys, open Control Panel and double-click on Accessibility Options. Click on the Keyboard tab and then select the Use Toggle Keys check box. Click on OK to close the dialog box and record the change. Close Control Panel and you're all finished. TIP: PRINTER, BY DEFAULT If you use more than one printer, you might like to specify which one serves as the default. By specifying a default printer in Windows NT, you choose which one automatically fires up when you use a program's Print command. Here's how: 1. Choose Start >> Settings >> Printers. 2. Right-click on the printer you want to use most of the time. 3. Choose Set As Default. Later, when you're printing and you want to choose another printer, you can make the selection in your program's Print dialog box--without disrupting the default choice. FIND IT QUICKLY When you're working in Explorer, you can open Find very quickly by simply pressing F3. Find will open with the path of the currently selected folder in Look In. You can change the path if necessary by typing in the new path. If you prefer, you can click on Browse, locate the new path, and click on OK. TIP: AN OPTHAMOLOGIST'S ICON Do you squint to see your icons? Does the thought of looking at an endless row of tiny little pictures leave you longing for an electric typewriter? Get relief and change the size of those Windows icons like this: In any Explorer or My Computer window you want to modify, choose View >> Large Icons. WHO SENT IT? To view the complete e-mail address of someone who has sent a News message, double-click on the message to open it. Now go to the author's name in the From field and double-click on it. To add the name to your Address Book, right-click on the author's name and then choose Add To Address Book. When the dialog box opens, fill it in and click on OK. TIP: GIVE EXPLORER MARCHING ORDERS If you have a complex system of filing, you'll end up with files buried way down deep in locations that look something like C:\toolbox\hardware\screwdrivers\phillips\short\yellowhandled. Sometimes clicking your way down to the bottom folder can be a pain. However, Windows NT's Explorer offers a quick way to get there: Go To. It's easy to use if you know the path to the folder you want to open . Here's how to use Go To: 1. With Windows NT's Explorer open, choose Tools >> Go to. 2. When the Go To Folder dialog box opens, type the exact destination in the text field. (For instance C:\Tips\Dummies\Wisecracks.) 3. Click on OK. Explorer opens up that directory, and you can get right to that file you need. TIP: INSTANT RESTARTS Let's face it: From time to time, a computer throws in the towel. You know--you're working away and suddenly something stops working. Doing a "warm boot" (restarting your PC without turning it off and back on again) can often correct the problem. To do a warm boot, follow these steps: 1. If you can, save any documents you have open. 2. Choose Start >> Shut Down >> Restart. 3. Choose OK. Your PC shuts down and then restarts with a clean slate. TIP: WHO SAYS DOS IS DEAD? If you're one of those diehards who likes working from DOS, or if you have an old DOS application you still use, you might be interested in a little cut-and-paste trick. It might not be obvious, but you can paste text into a DOS window. (Note: This trick only works when you use DOS or a DOS-based program from within a window; it won't work when DOS is at full screen). 1. Copy or cut the text from your Windows application. 2. Choose Start >> Programs >> MS-DOS. 3. From the DOS toolbar, choose the Paste button (the third button to the right of the font size selection box). HIDING AND NOT HIDING If you have several users that you think might benefit from having the known file extensions hidden, you can still display selected extensions. To hide the extensions, open a window and choose View|Options. Next, click on the View tab (if it isn't already selected). Now select the Hide File Extensions for Known File Types check box. Click on OK to close the dialog box and record your change. Some file types can cause problems (or at least confusion) when the extensions are not shown. Let's say you'd like Windows NT to display all .TXT extensions. Open a window again and choose View|Options. This time, click on the File Types tab and then locate text files in the list. Click on Edit and select the check box labelled Always Show Extension. Click on OK and then click on OK again when you get back to the Options dialog box. Now the .TXT extension will appear even though the other registered extensions don't. EXPLORING FOLDERS If you'd like to quickly open a folder in Explorer view, select the folder, hold down the Shift key, and double-click the folder. You can open Start in Explorer view by right-clicking Start, then choosing Explore. TIP: PUTTING THOSE DESKTOP ICONS IN THEIR PLACE Want to arrange your desktop icons and keep them there? Try using Windows NT's icon Auto Arrange feature: 1. Right-click on any blank area of your desktop. 2. Choose Arrange Icons, then select Auto Arrange. Windows arranges your icons neatly, and these icons remain snug in their new spots forever, no matter how hard you try to move them--until you turn off Auto Arrange. CLOSE TO YOU Let's suppose that you opened a floppy disk to see what's on it and then you decide to format it. You right-click the Floppy drive icon and choose Format. All looks well, but when you start formatting, Windows NT will decline to continue. The reason is that you can't format a floppy disk that's open. To format the disk, close any window that displays the floppy's contents. Now choose Format again and all will proceed as it should. ADDING TO SEND TO If you right-click a file icon, then choose Send To, you get a menu of possible destinations. Did you know you can add items to this list? Just add a folder or application's shortcut to the C:\Winnt\Profiles\YourProfile\SendTo folder, in which YourProfile is the name of your profile folder. You should work only with your own Send To folder, even if you can access others. To add an item to the Send To folder, locate the item's icon and drag it to the C:\Winnt\Profiles\YourProfile\SendTo folder. This will create a shortcut in the Send To folder. MULTIPLE ASSOCIATIONS Ever wish you could open a document with more than one application? Well, you can. Let's say you usually open text files with NotePad, but sometimes you'd like to open them using Word for Windows. To do this, open Explorer and choose View|Options. Then click File Types and locate the Text Document entry. Double-click the Text icon and when the dialog box opens, click New. In the Action text entry box, enter Open and the name of the application you want to use. In this case, you can enter Open (Word for Windows). Now click in the "Application used to perform action" text box and click Browse. Locate the application you want to use (Winword.EXE) and double-click its icon. Click OK, then click Close twice to close all the dialog boxes. To open the .TXT file with NotePad, just double-click the icon as usual. To open it with Word for Windows, right-click the document's icon and choose Open (Word for Windows). WHAT'S IN A NAME? It's nice to be able to use long file names for your Microsoft Office documents. However, when you save them to a floppy to transfer to another computer (which may not handle the long file names), you may not get the file names you'd like. For example, if you name your files something like Inventory for June 1997 And Inventory for July 1997 the short file names will be Invent~1 and Invent~2. To see what a short file name(the MS-DOS name) will be before you copy the file to a floppy disk, go to Explorer or My Computer, click on the file's icon, choose File|Properties and click the General tab. There you'll find the MS-DOS name. Knowing what the short file name is will help you adjust the name to make it more readable to another user. FINDING FILES If you're working at the desktop and need to search for a file, you don't have to open Windows NT Explorer or My Computer. All you have to do is click a blank spot on the desktop, then press F3. This will open the Find dialog box that you can use to locate your file. A GOLDEN RETRIEVER You can use the Documents menu to revisit files that you've used recently. For example, if you've worked with several Word files, you'll find those files appear in the Documents menu. All you have to do to open one of them is click Start|Documents and select the file. You may notice that some files don't appear in Documents. Chances are these are files that fail to properly register with NT. Only the files of applications that registered properly during setup will appear in the menu. DON'T START WITH AUTOEXEC.BAT Windows NT 4.0 looks at the Autoexec.BAT file to read environment information. It doesn't act on any commands in the file. So if you want to start a file when Windows NT 4.0 starts, don't use Autoexec.BAT. Place the file you want to start in the Startup folder instead. WHERE HAVE YOU GONE WIN.INI? Windows NT 4.0 doesn't need, or use, Win.INI. All the information NT needs is in the Registry. If you install Windows NT 4.0 over a Windows 3.x installation, the setup program extracts needed information from Win.INI, System.INI, Progman.INI, Control.INI, Winfile.INI, and System.INI during the installation. Win.INI and System.INI remain only to provide backward compatibility with those older programs that need them. SOME NT POINTERS If you'd like to try some different mouse pointers, click Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click the Mouse icon. Click the Pointers tab to see what pointers are currently in effect. Let's say you want to change the Normal Select pointer. You can choose one of the pointers in the list, or you can choose a third-party cursor (provided you have some on your hard disk). To look for a pointer, click Browse, then locate and select an appropriate cursor (a *.CUR file). After you make a selection click Open, then OK. HANDY NOTEPADS NotePad is a handy text editor. It's so handy that you might like to keep it readily available. Perhaps you'd like to place a shortcut to it on your desktop. If so, open Windows NT Explorer and locate the Winnt folder. In the right pane of Explorer, locate the Notepad.EXE icon and use the right mouse button to drag it to the desktop. When you release the mouse button, NT will open a menu from which you need to choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. Now NotePad will always be readily accessible. TIP: GETTING TO KNOW YOUR DESKTOP AGAIN If you're in the habit of saving your files to your desktop, you may soon find that the desktop has disappeared, hidden behind a litter of files with names like "Grocery list," "Letter to Mom," and "mfsfpub93" (whatever that means). So if you don't like your desktop looking like the nether regions of a teenager's hopelessly cluttered bedroom, delete the documents that you no longer need by doing the following: 1. Click on the file you want to remove. 2. Press Delete. 3. When the Confirm File Delete dialog box appears, click Yes. In this manner, you can delete as many files as you want -- or at least enough to remind you what your desktop wallpaper looks like. 'ROUND, 'ROUND, I GET AROUND The usual way of getting around in a window is to use the mouse, but it isn't the only way. Let's say you're in the Drive C window and the first folder is selected. If you want to move to the second folder, you can use the mouse to click the folder, or you can press the right arrow key. To open a folder, you can double-click it. If the folder is already selected, you can open it by simply pressing Enter. FULL OF YOURSELF, II If you have an MS-DOS program that you run full screen on a regular basis, create a shortcut for the program and while the MS-DOS window is in view, press Alt+Spacebar to open the Control menu. Choose Properties, then click the Options tab. Under Display Options, select the radio button labelled Full Screen. Now click OK to close the dialog box. In the next dialog box select the Apply Properties To Current Window Only radio button and click OK. Now your MS-DOS program will always open in full-screen mode. FULL OF YOURSELF If you have some old MS-DOS applications that you simply must run, you might want to run them in full-screen mode. To switch an open MS-DOS window to full screen, press Alt+Enter. To get back to window mode, press Alt+Enter again. TOO MANY TOOLBARS Toolbars are handy, but to some people they just get in the way. This is often the case when you use the same template on a regular basis. If you'd like to get rid of some of the toolbars, choose View|Toolbars, then deselect the one you don't need. To delete more than one toolbar, you need to choose View|Toolbars for each toolbar. You can only make one change at a time. If you decide you need a toolbar after all, repeat this procedure and select the toolbar you want to use. SMALL, MEDIUM OR LARGE? Do those scrollbars seem a little too narrow at times? A bit hard to grab with the mouse pointer? If so, why not change the scrollbar size? To modify the scrollbar in Windows NT 4.0, right-click on the desktop, then choose Properties. When the dialog box opens, click the Appearance tab. Click the arrow at the right of the Item list box to expand the list. Choose Scrollbar from the list, then use the Size spin box to set the scrollbar width. After you select the size you want, click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes. EXTENSION PROBLEMS The last tip showed you how to tell Windows NT 4.0 that you don't want to see extensions for known file types (View|Options|View tab). This is great, but there is at least one particular problem: If you add an extension to one of these files thinking that you're changing the extension name, you could be mistaken. For example, if you have a file named Test.TXT, the extension won't show in the drive folder. If you then click on the name and type in .TXT, the file will be renamed to Test.TXT.TXT. SCENIC VIEW AHEAD By default My Computer in Windows NT 4.0 doesn't display hidden and system files. Since you may need to see these files, open My Computer and choose View|Options and click the View tab. Now select the Show All Files radio button, then click OK. FREE CHECKING ACCOUNT Version 4.0You can check drive space in the Explorer by right-clicking on the drive in question, then choosing the Properties command from the menu that opens. The Properties dialog box will show you how much disk space is in use and how much remains for use. It also shows you a neat pie chart representation of the selected disk. This works for any drive: hard disk, floppy, CD, or removable. PIPE DOWN! Everyone likes cool screen savers, and the 3D Pipes screen saver found in Windows NT 4.0 is way cool. It's also a CPU hog. If 3D Pipes is active and you have applications running in the background, the screen saver is stealing CPU time from them. This is something to keep in mind if you leave applications running while the screen saver is active. If you do, you may want to go for a simple blank screen screen saver. If you never run applications in the background while 3D Pipes is active, enjoy! FIND IT FAST If you're working with a full desktop and need to find a file or folder, you can open the Find dialog box very quickly. All you have to do is click once on a bare spot on the desktop (surely there's a bare spot somewhere), then press F3. The Find dialog box will appear on top of whatever you're running. WHERE THERE'S A WAY, THERE'S ANOTHER WAY We recently reported that you can change your Windows NT Workstation startup by opening the Control Panel, then double-clicking the System icon. You can also modify startup by right-clicking My Computer, choosing Properties, then clicking the Startup/Shutdown tab. WHATTA DRAG Let's say you're using the mouse to drag an object from one place to another when you realize you don't want to make that move at all. Don't panic, just keep holding down that mouse button and press Esc to cancel the move (or copy). Now release the mouse button. START ALL OVER AGAIN If you've put some stuff in your Start menu that you no longer need, here's how to get rid of it. Right-click Start and choose Explore. Now double-click Programs, then select and delete the items you no longer need. Note: All the items in Start should be shortcuts, so double-check to make sure you're not deleting an original file. NOT ALL TRASH IS CREATED EQUAL Ordinarily, all files deleted from floppy disk drives are gone forever. However, if you like, you can send these files to the Recycle Bin indirectly and provide yourself with some deletion protection. Create a new folder on your desktop and name it Trash. Now move files from the floppy to Trash where you can keep them until it's safe to delete them. Then you can move them to the Recycle Bin where you'll still have some protection. IT ALL ADDS UP Need to know how much space a selection of folders and/or files takes up on your hard drive? If so, open Explorer and hold down Ctrl as you select objects. Then right-click any of the objects and choose Properties. You'll get a dialog box that displays the total size of all the selected objects. FINDERS KEEPERS If you've just ran a Find that you know you'll need again, keep it around for future use. It's a lot quicker than having to type in all those conditions again. Once you've completed your search, choose File|Save Search. Doing so places an icon that represents that Find on the desktop. (Of course, you can move it wherever you want, such as into a folder you've set up for Finds.) To conduct the same search in the future, double-click the shortcut. Find will open with all the conditions set--all you have to do is click Find. WHAT IS MY CD KEY? It's easy to lose track of the Windows NT CD case. But if you do lose the case, you also lose the CD Key unless you've already written it down somewhere. This is a problem when you need to re- install. So, let's look at how you can use RegEdit to get the system to show you the CD Key. As usual, be careful when editing the Registry. Open RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. Look at ProductId. The CD Key is digits 6 through 15. Copy the number into a NotePad file and save it where you can easily find it. It wouldn't hurt to write it down and file it away in your desk just to be safe. Close RegEdit after you copy the number. Warning: Don't do anything to change the CD Key--just copy the number and exit RegEdit. TIP: WHAT YOU SEE IS (ALMOST) WHAT YOU GET If you're like most computer users these days, you probably have a bazillion fonts loaded on your system. Most have intriguing names that tell you little about what the font actually looks like. Windows 95 offers a feature that lets you find the name of a font that is similar to another font; that way, if you know you want a font that looks like, say, Arial--but not exactly like Arial--you can find it fast. 1. Choose Start >> Settings >> Control Panel. 2. Double-click on Fonts. 3. In the Fonts window, choose View >> List Fonts By Similarity. 4. When you do, Windows 95 adds a drop-down called List Fonts By Similarity To. 5. In that list, choose the font you want to match. A list appears, with fonts listed as either "very similar," "fairly similar," "not similar 6. Once you isolate the similar font, note its name and choose it in your application A QUICK LOOK AT QUICKVIEW Many users wonder why QuickView isn't an available option for some files. The fact is you can make QuickView available for almost any file type. The problem is that QuickView may not do you much good with some files. Let's say that QuickView isn't available for .DAT files. Open a window and choose View|Options. Click on the File Types tab and then (assuming that .DAT isn't already included) click on New. Now click in the Associated extension text entry box and type in .DAT. Select the Enable QuickView check box and click on OK. In the Options dialog box click on OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. Locate a .DAT file now and right-click on its icon. When the menu opens, choose QuickView to view the file's contents. TIP: REMOVE COVER BEFORE STRIKING Sometimes getting rid of a program you no longer need can be as difficult as getting rid of your annoying brother-in-law at family holidays--without, of course, the jail time. When you want to nuke a program, you might be tempted to highlight and delete files and folders until the program is purged from your system. But doing it that way is dangerous. You might accidentally delete files your system needs or you might accidentally delete important files that YOU need. Moreover, it's hard to be sure when you've gotten rid of the application completely. Instead of deleting an application, you're better off "uninstalling" it, using Windows 95's uninstaller. Uninstalling a program is much like installing it, only in reverse. Here's how: 1. Choose Start >> Settings >> Control Panel. 2. Double-click on Add/Remove Programs. 3. When the Add/Remove programs Properties dialog box appears, highlight the name of the program you want to uninstall and click on Add/Remove. Windows 95 runs a program that lets you remove the program. 4. In the next dialog box, click on Remove All. The Uninstall program proceeds to remove the offending program, and you can be sure that your system is safe from accidental deletions. Now, if only you could be so thorough at Thanksgiving. RUN, RUN, RUN When you want to run a program that you know is available but isn't in the Start menu, you don't have to search the disk for the file. Instead, click on Start|Run and type in the file name. For example, if you want to run RegEdit, click on Start|Run, type in RegEdit and press Enter. This works for Registered programs that are in the path. You can also use this method to run programs that don't require Registry entries provided they are either in the path, or you supply the full path and file name. STOP THAT CHKDSK If you run CHKDSK /F /R from a command prompt, the system asks if you want to run CHKDSK the next time you start the system. Suppose you answer Yes and then later decide that you'd rather not run CHKDSK on the next restart. To stop a scheduled CHKDSK, you have to edit the Registry. So be careful. Run RegEdit32 and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager. Now double-click on BootExecute. When the dialog box opens, change the value to autocheck autochk *. and click on OK. Close RegEdit32. When you restart, CHKDSK /F will not run. COMMAND PROMPT COMMANDS Here is a list of prompt commands to adjust the command prompt in Windows NT. Command/Result $A & Ampersand $B | Pipe $C ( Open parenthesis $D Current date $E Escape code (ASCII code 27) $F ) Close parenthesis $G > greater-than sign $H Backspace (erases previous character) $L < Less-than sign $N Current drive $P Current drive with path $Q = Equal sign $S Space $T Current time $V Windows NT version number $_ Carriage return and linefeed $$ $ Dollar sign Here's an example of how to use the prompt command. Go to the Command Prompt window and type prompt $D$S$T$S$V$_$P$G at the prompt. Now press Enter to produce the command prompt shown here: Fri 08/22/1997 10:29:46.17 Windows NT Version 4.0 C:\> TIP: GETTING A NEW START Windows 95 offers a number of ways to operate from the DOS mode. One way to get to DOS is through the Start menu. Follow these steps: 1. Click on Start >> Shut Down. 2. In the Shut Down Windows dialog box, choose Restart the computer in MS-DOS Mode. 3. Click on Yes. To return to Windows, type "exit" (without the quotation marks). PRINTING ON THE FLY If you'd like to print documents using the drag-and-drop method, you need to make the printer icon readily available. The best way to handle this is to place a shortcut to the printer on your desktop. To do this, click Start and choose Printers. When the Printers window opens, use the right mouse button to drag the printer to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. Now all you have to do is drag documents to the printer icon to print them. The documents, however, must be registered files that will open the appropriate application. WHO YOU GONNA CALL? If you need some quick help on how to use an MS-DOS command in the Command Prompt window, at the prompt type Command /? in which Command is the name of the command you need to use. When you press Enter, you'll get information on how to use the command. You can also get help by clicking the Command Prompt's Command button, then choosing Properties. When the dialog box opens, click Help. When finished using Help, click OK or Cancel to close the dialog box. START OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT If you need to start a Win 16 application from the command prompt and would like to run it in its own memory space, type Start /Separate Drive\Folder\App where 'Drive' is the drive on which the file resides, 'Folder' is the name of the folder where the file is located, and 'App' is the name of the Win 16 executable file. CHECKING UP ON YOUR START UP If you need to see what drivers are being loaded as Windows NT 4.0 starts, you can use Boot.INI to tell NT to display the drivers. When you edit the Boot.INI file, you need to first make sure you have a backup of the current file. Here's what we do: We rename Boot.INI to Boot.TXT. Next, open Boot.TXT with NotePad and make the changes. Finally, choose File|Save As, then select All Files from the Save As Type list box. Now name the file Boot.INI and save it. This keeps your original file in the form of Boot.TXT. To display the drivers during start up, add /SOS to the Windows NT line. Your line should resemble the one shown here. multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" /SOS Now save the file as Boot.INI and restart your computer to see the drivers loading during start up. COMMAND THE PROMPT COMMAND'S ATTENTION You can change the command prompt during an MS-DOS session with the Prompt command. For example, you could type What is your command? $P$G to make the prompt look like this: What is your command? C:\> This prompt will remain in effect until you change it or close the command window. If you'd like to change the prompt permanently, click Start|Settings|Control Panel and double-click System. Next, click the Environment tab and click in the Variable text box. Type Prompt, then click in the Value text box. In this box, you need to enter your new prompt text. Sticking with our original example, you could enter What is your command? $P$G Now click Add, then click OK to close the dialog box. When you open the command prompt window again, it will display your new default prompt. CLEANING UP CAREFULLY If you're trying to clear out some unnecessary files, be careful in the root folder. For example, be sure not to accidentally delete Bootsect.DOS. This file contains the boot record for the alternate operating system in a dual-boot configuration. If you delete the file, you'll be unable to start your alternate system. GETTING ALONG In Windows 95, if you go to the command prompt and type md This is a test you'll get an error message telling you that you're trying to enter too many parameters. If you enter the same thing at the Windows NT command prompt, you'll get folders named c:\This c:\is c:\a c:\test In either Windows 95 or Windows NT, you can use quotes to create long folder names. For example, entering md "This is a test" will create a folder named This is a test in either system. NOWHERE TO AUTORUN In the last tip, we pointed out that disabling Autorun can cause a problem if you play audio discs. Besides the CD problem, enabling Autorun can cause other problems. For example, if you use a disc changer, Autorun will force you to wait while it cycles through all the discs loaded in the changer. Enabling or disabling Autorun requires you to edit the Registry. As usual, be careful when using RegEdit--you can seriously damage your installation--so make a backup. That said, here's how to enable and disable Autorun. Run RegEdit (it's in the \Winnt folder) and choose HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom, then double-click the Autorun key in the right pane of the RegEdit window. This opens a dialog box into which you enter a value. To disable Autorun, enter 0; to enable it, enter 1. Now click OK to close the dialog box. When back in RegEdit, choose Registry|Exit to close the program and save the change. TRACKING PAGEFILE SIZE FOR PEAK EFFICIENCY If you'd like to see if your page files are optimum, try this: First, click Start|Settings|Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double-click System to open it, then click the Performance tab. Now click Change under Virtual Memory. This will open the Virtual Memory dialog box. See how much initial memory is assigned in your system. Record the value, then click OK twice to back out of the dialog boxes. Now go ahead with your work and at the end of each day open Windows NT Explorer and click once on Pagefile.SYS to see how large it is. Check this for a few days and if the file size is consistently larger than the initial size, you may want to change the initial size to make your system more efficient. ICON SEE CLEARLY NOW Windows NT 4.0 will let you use .BMP files as icons. To check this out, right-click on a shortcut's icon, then choose Properties from the menu. When the dialog box opens, click the Shortcut tab. Next, click Change Icon. When the next dialog box opens, click Browse. When the Change Icon dialog box opens, click on the Files of Type list box to expand it and choose All Files. Now locate a .BMP file that you'd like to try. There are several files in the \Winnt folder that you can use. Select the file and click Open. When the next dialog box appears, click OK. This takes you back to the Properties dialog box. Click OK to close this dialog box and to record your change. THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR CHANGIN' If you'd like to change the wording of your boot choices on a dual-boot installation, you can do so by modifying Boot.INI. To work with Boot.INI, open Windows NT Explorer and go to the root folder. Note that Boot.INI is a read-only file. Rather than overwriting it, we suggest you keep it by renaming it Boot.TXT. Now open Boot.TXT and make your changes to the text. When finished, save the file as Boot.INI. Restart the computer to see how your changes work. BOOTING THE DEFAULT BOOT When you use a dual-boot system, by default you'll boot into Windows NT 4.0. If you'd like to change this, click Start, then choose Settings|Control Panel. When the Control Panel opens, click the Startup/Shutdown tab. Next, click the down arrow at the right side of the Startup list box to expand the list. Now you can select the system you'd like to boot into by default. Note that you can also change the time the computer waits before booting the default system. When you finish making your selections, click OK to close the dialog box and store your new selection. READIN', NO WRITIN' If you followed the procedure we described in the last tip (changing the wording on Boot.INI by converting it to text), you'll find that your renamed Boot.TXT will remain a read-only file. However, your new Boot.INI is not a read-only file. This won't interfere with anything, but if you'd like to make it read-only, just locate it with the Explorer and right-click on its icon. When the menu opens, choose Properties, then select the check box labeled Read-only. Click OK and Boot.INI will become a read-only file. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MONITOR Windows NT 4.0 Workstation provides a considerable amount of control over the way you use your video display card and monitor. For example, to avoid screen flicker you might want to increase the refresh rate. If you use photo files, you'll want to increase the colors resolution as much as possible. To set your screen parameters, right-click the desktop and when the menu appears choose Properties. When the Display Properties dialog box opens, click the Settings tab. Now click the List All Modes button. All you have to do is select the conditions you want to use and click OK. To make sure your new mode selection works, click Test. If all is well, click Yes in the next dialog box. Now click OK in the Display Properties dialog box to save your changes and close the dialog box. TESTING, TESTING... If you're setting up your video and make a choice that your video can't handle, Windows NT 4.0 will switch to standard VGA. This will allow you to go back to the Display Properties dialog box to make another choice. You can generally avoid bad choices by always clicking Test after you make a choice. SHORT-TERM MEMORY LOSS Why would you want to reduce your system's memory? Well, suppose you have a large number of computers that you'd like to use with Windows NT 4.0, and you'd like to know if they'll run all the necessary applications with a minimal amount of RAM. But there you are, with your computer all filled with RAM. To see how your applications would run in something like 16 MB, open the Explorer and go to the root folder. Locate Boot.INI and rename it to Boot.TXT so you'll have a backup copy. Now double-click Boot.TXT to open it. The file should resemble the one shown here. [Boot Loader] Timeout=10 Default=C:\ [Operating Systems] C:\="Microsoft Windows" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" Navigate to the end of the quoted part of the WINNT line and add /MAXMEM=16 as shown below. (Anything below 16 is way too slow). [Boot Loader] Timeout=10 Default=C:\ [Operating Systems] C:\="Microsoft Windows" multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" /MAXMEM=16 Now save the file as Boot.INI and restart Windows NT. WHAT'S IN A NAME? By default, Windows NT 4.0 places the name of the last user in the Username dialog box. This is great when the computer is used by only one person. However, if the computer is used by a group of people, this feature can potentially pose a security problem. If you'd like Windows NT to always require the user to type in a name, you can use the Registry editor to make the change. Before you start, we need to warn you that modifying the Registry can cause some severe problems, so make a backup! Open the Explorer and go to the Winnt folder. Locate Regedit and double-click the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder to expand it. Now double-click the following folders in sequence: SOFTWARE|Microsoft|Windows NT|Current Version. Click once on the Winlogon folder. Look in the right pane of Regedit to see if there's a listing called DontDisplayLastUserName. If there is, double-click it and change the value from 0 to 1. If there is no DontDisplayLastUserName, you need to create one. To do this, right click in the Regedit right pane. This opens the New menu from which you choose String Value. Name the new value DontDisplayLastUserName, then double-click it. Type in 1 and click OK. Now choose Registry|Exit to exit Regedit. When you restart the computer, you'll be prompted to enter your user name. WHAT, ME RECYCLE? Deleting files sends them by default to the Recycle Bin, where you can still get them back if need be. If you want to trash a file, knowing that you'll never want to see it again, select it, hold down Shift and press Delete. Gone-zo. THE GEEK'S WAY TO CLEAR DOCUMENTS If you'd like to clear the Documents menu with a simple double-click, you can write a batch file such as the one shown here. To write the batch file, open NotePad and type move d:\winnt\profiles\YourProfile\recent\*.* c:\recycled where YourProfile is your personal profile name. Now name the file Zap.BAT and save it in the folder of your choice. Next, create a shortcut and place it on the desktop. Right-click the shortcut and choose Properties. Click the Shortcut tab, then choose Minimized in the Run list box. Click OK to close the dialog box and save your changes. Now you can double-click the Zap icon to clear the Documents menu. Warning: Make sure you get the correct profile folder in Zap's path, since this permanently deletes all files in the target folder. These files do not go to the Recycle Bin--they are gone. DOCUMENTS, DOCUMENTS EVERYWHERE To revisit documents you click Start|Documents and make your choice. The only problem with Documents is that the menu can get rather full after a while. To clean out this list and make a new, um, start, click Start|Settings|Taskbar, then click the Start Menu Programs tab. Click Clear, then OK to clear the documents menu. GOT A THING FOR YOUR PROGRAM MANAGER? If you really liked Program Manager and don't want to give it up quite yet, open My Computer, double-click the Win NT drive (probably C:) and navigate to the Winnt folder. Double-click Winnt, then double-click System32. Locate Progman.EXE and right-click it, then drag its icon to the desktop. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. You can now double-click the shortcut to open Program Manager. You'll have to set it up since it isn't aware of anything that's currently on the desktop. MAKE IT AUTOMATIC Yesterday's tip showed you how to create a batch file that clears the Documents menu. If you'd like to have Zap.BAT automatically clear the Documents menu so you can start with a clean slate every day, place a shortcut to Zap into the Start Up folder. Once again, right-click the icon and choose Properties. Then click Shortcut and choose Minimized from the Run list box. Click OK to close the dialog box and record your changes. Warning: Don't forget that Zap will permanently delete all files in the target folder. Make absolutely sure you have entered the correct path. FIRING THE ASSISTANT If you've had enough of the Office Assistant and would like to get rid of it, here's how. Put the Microsoft Office disc into the CD-ROM drive, then click Start|Settings|Control Panel. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon to open a dialog box. Now select Microsoft Office 97 and click Add/Remove. Follow the instructions, then deselect Office Assistant. Follow through all the dialog boxes and Office Assistant will be removed from your installation. If you later decide that you miss the Assistant, you can follow the same procedure to restore it. This time select Office Assistant instead of deselecting it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Image] Copyright © 1997 Vancouver Island NT User Group Most recent update: Sunday, October 26, 1997 For more information contact webmaster@vintug.bc.ca http://www.vintug.bc.ca/pages/NT_tips/default.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------